1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flying recording head for recording information onto a recording medium such as an optical recording film, a magnetooptic recording film, or a magnetic recording film, a disk drive, and a method of manufacturing the flying recording head. More particularly, a flying recording head which is cheap, small, and highly precise, having high mass-productivity, high recording density, and high transfer rate, a disk drive, and a method of manufacturing the flying recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a conventional flying recording head has been disclosed by A. Partovi in xe2x80x9cTech. Dig. ISOM/ODS ""99, ThC-1 (1999), p. 352xe2x80x9d.
FIG. 16 shows the conventional flying recording head. This flying recording head 1 is made of alumina (Al2O3) and in which an edge emitting type semiconductor laser 200 is bonded to a rear end 100a of a flying slider 100 having a slider surface 100b. In the edge emitting type semiconductor laser 200, a high-reflective multilayer film 201 and a low-reflective multilayer film 202 constructing a resonator for laser having an oscillation wavelength of 980 nm are disposed on the rear end surface and the front end surface of an oscillation region 203, respectively. On the surface of the low-reflective multilayer film 202, a metal shading film 204 in which a micro-aperture 204a is formed by etching using a focused ion beam (FIB) of Ga ions is disposed. In such a configuration, by irradiating a phase-change recording medium 7a of an optical disk 7 with a laser beam 8 of a small size emitted through the micro-aperture 204a, recording and reproduction is performed. At the time of reproduction, reflected light from the recording medium 7a reenters the resonator for laser of the semiconductor laser 200 through the micro-aperture 204a. By a self coupling effect, specifically, by electrically or optically detecting modulation of the semiconductor laser 200 due to the re-incident light, information is reproduced. By using the laser beam 8 of which size is reduced by the micro-aperture 204a for recording/reproducing information, higher recording density can be realized.
In the conventional flying recording head, however, the flying slider 100 and the semiconductor laser 200 are separately manufactured and are adhered to each other. It is, therefore, difficult to perform positioning of the flying slider 100 and the semiconductor laser 200 with high precision. The adhering process causes low mass-productivity and high cost. Since the slider surface 100b formed in the flying slider 100 requires a predetermined area to generate a predetermined flying power, miniaturization is limited.
The present invention provides a small, high-precision, and cheap flying recording head having high mass-productivity, high recording density, and high transfer rate, a disk drive, and a method of manufacturing the flying recording head.
The invention provides a flying recording head which flies on an airflow generated by rotation of a disk, including: a substrate; a semiconductor laser formed by growing a semiconductor crystal on the substrate; and a slider surface formed on a surface of at least one of the substrate and the semiconductor laser facing the disk.
According to the configuration, the substrate, the semiconductor laser, and the slider surface are integrated, so that the high-precision, small flying recording head having high mass-productivity can be manufactured. As the substrate, an insulating substrate made of sapphire, alumina containing titanium oxide, gallium nitride, silicon nitride, spinel, MgO, or the like or a conductive substrate made of GaN, SiN, Si, GaAs, or the like may be used. As the semiconductor laser, an edge emitting type semiconductor laser or a surface emitting type semiconductor laser (especially a vertical cavity surface emitting laser: VCSEL) may be used. An AlGaInN-based semiconductor crystal may be used for the semiconductor laser. The semiconductor laser may be formed in a surface on the downstream side of an airflow of the substrate (rear end surface), a surface facing a disk (under surface), or a surface opposite to a disk (top surface).
The invention provides a flying recording head which flies on an airflow generated by rotation of a disk, including: a substrate; a semiconductor laser formed by growing a semiconductor crystal on a downstream side surface of the airflow of the substrate; and a slider surface formed on a surface of at least one of the substrate and the semiconductor laser facing the disk.
According to the configuration, the substrate, the semiconductor laser formed in the surface (rear end surface) on the downstream side of the airflow of the substrate, and the slider surface are integrated, so that the high-precision, small flying recording head having high mass-productivity can be manufactured.
The invention provides a flying recording head which flies on an airflow generated by rotation of a disk, including: a substrate; a surface emitting type semiconductor laser formed by growing a semiconductor crystal on a surface of the substrate facing the disk; and a slider surface formed on a surface of at least one of the substrate and the surface emitting type semiconductor laser facing the disk.
According to the configuration, the substrate, the semiconductor laser formed in the surface (under surface) facing a disk of the substrate, and the slider surface are integrated, so that the high-precision, small flying recording head having high mass-productivity can be manufactured.
The present invention provides a flying recording head which flies by an airflow generated by rotation of a disk, including: a transparent substrate; a slider surface formed on a surface facing the disk of the substrate; and a semiconductor laser which is formed by growing a semiconductor crystal on a surface of the substrate opposite to the slider surface and emits a laser beam through the substrate.
According to the configuration, the substrate, the semiconductor laser formed in the surface of the substrate (top surface) opposite to a disk, and the slider surface are integrated, so that the high-precision, small flying recording head having high mass-productivity can be manufactured.
The invention provides a disk drive including: a disk having a surface on which a recording medium is formed; a motor which rotates the disk; a flying recording head having a semiconductor laser formed by growing a semiconductor crystal on a substrate and a slider surface formed on a surface of at least the substrate or the semiconductor laser facing the disk; and a moving unit which relatively moves the flying recording head with respect to the disk.
According to the configuration, the substrate, the semiconductor laser, and the slider surface are integrated, so that the high-precision, small flying recording head having high mass-productivity can be manufactured and low cost, high recording density, and high transfer rate can be accordingly achieved. As a recording medium, an optical recording film, a magneto-optic recording film, a magnetic recording film, or the like can be used.
The invention provides a method of manufacturing a flying recording head including the steps of: forming a semiconductor laser by growing a semiconductor crystal on a substrate; and forming a slider surface at least on the substrate or the semiconductor laser.
According to the configuration, the substrate, the semiconductor laser, and the slider surface are integrated, so that the high-precision, small flying recording head having high mass-productivity can be manufactured.
The invention provides a method of manufacturing plural flying recording heads each having a substrate, a semiconductor laser, and a slider surface, including the steps of: forming plural semiconductor lasers by growing a semiconductor crystal on the substrate; forming the slider surface at least on a surface of the substrate or the semiconductor laser; and dicing the substrate.
According to the configuration, the plural flying recording heads are manufactured by forming the plural semiconductor lasers on the substrate, forming the slider surface and, after that, dicing the substrate, thereby improving the mass-productivity.